


lady luck

by kurgaya



Category: Naruto
Genre: Banter, Domestic Fluff, Don't copy to another site, Drabble, F/M, Fate & Destiny, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:00:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22365280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurgaya/pseuds/kurgaya
Summary: It’s been many years since Sakumo last reverse-summoned himself to the chakra-mother’s plane. This meeting will be unlike all others he was part of. He wonders how his parents felt – if they felt the same unease.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Hatake Sakumo, Hatake Kakashi's Mother/Hatake Sakumo
Comments: 14
Kudos: 111





	lady luck

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MegaWallflower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaWallflower/gifts).



> This is, er, for Flower, who wanted me to write something with Sakumo and absolutely probably 100% did not have this in mind xD

_You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?_ \- The Happy Mask Salesman, Majora’s Mask

“I _knew_ this would happen when we baby-proofed the house,” Mahiro grumbles, shoving her armful of scrolls back onto the bookshelf. _Neatly_ isn’t her way of doing anything and Sakumo winces at the rough treatment. A couple of the scrolls miss the shelf and roll across the floor, and Mahiro chases after them with her mouth ablaze. Kakashi’s first word will be... vulgar at this rate. He, at least, doesn’t seem to mind, watching his mother with a wide-eyed vacancy that only babies can achieve. _Makes you wonder what he’s thinking_ , Mahiro had once said. Sakumo hums as he did then, doubting their son’s thoughts have much coherency at all.

“It has to be here _somewhere_ ,” Mahiro continues, pulling scrolls off the next shelf. She inspects each one for a moment and then dumps it onto another shelf. It’s just as well their library’s classification system is already non-existent for it’s certainly non-existent now. “Wish I could reverse-summon the _scroll_. Why did I tidy everything? What was I thinking?”

_Tidy_ is relative. When Sakumo tidies, the house looks cleaner. When his wife tidies, the house looks exactly the same except shuffled around. He doesn’t offer a comment but Mahiro throws a pout over her shoulder anyway. He can’t help but smile.

“Kuuuumo,” she sing-songs, eyes pleading. “Can’t you put that nose of yours to use?”

“I can,” Sakumo replies - and then doesn’t. Mahiro’s expression drops. In the rocker, Kakashi fusses in tune with his mother’s mood. Sakumo’s smile widens, baring his teeth. “Top left.”

“Top -? _You knew it was there!_ ”

Guilty as charged. Mahiro mock-stabs him with the wayward summoning scroll.

He doesn’t bother protecting himself. “I was wondering how long it would take you to realise we’ve Mahiro-proofed the house,” he jokes, and she does jab him this time, right under his ribs. His _oof_ of pain isn’t entirely an act.

Kakashi squirms happily nearby, reaching up for his mother. Mahiro bops him with the scroll too, far more gently and with the necessary sound-effect. Kakashi wiggles, his tiny limbs flailing like a pup’s in a dream.

“I know,” Mahiro agrees, despite Kakashi’s lack of speech. She tickles his tummy, cooing. “Can you even imagine? Konoha’s White Fang _murdered_ in his own home! By his own _wife_! We’ve gotta keep your dad on his toes. You’ll help me, right?”

Kakashi gargles. He tries to squish his fist into his mouth.

Mahiro laughs. “Now, now, being cute won’t absolve you of responsibility.”

Fondness floods Sakumo’s chest. He slides the scroll from Mahiro’s grasp, kissing her freckled neck. “He gets it from you," he mutters, and she laughs again, shooing him away. Kakashi watches them kiss, eyes big and pale and seeing almost nothing at all.

Sakumo pops open the scroll. The canine summoning contract slides into his palm. "Shall we?"

It’s been many years since Sakumo last reverse-summoned himself to the chakra-mother’s plane. Mahiro’s first and only visit was recent, relatively, when she signed the canine contract herself. Sakumo didn’t know how to prepare her for the chakra-mother then and he doesn’t know how to prepare himself now. This meeting will be unlike all others he was part of. He wonders how his parents felt – if they felt the same unease.

“That’s a sad face,” Mahiro says, fingers brushing Sakumo’s elbow. Kakashi stares at the golden curl of her hair but Sakumo looks to her face, smiling gently. “It’ll be all right.”

Sakumo hopes so. He pushes his chakra into the contract below them, hands forming the familiar shapes. The ink, the paper, and then the whole room glows white. For a moment, he is weightless, suspended between one world and the next, and then his feet sink into earth. Around them, Hatsuhime’s plane flourishes with wheat fields as white as snow.

A head pops up from amongst the crop. Against the ever-white backdrop, the wolf’s reddish fur is a splash of blood. A bad omen, perhaps, except Atsuko has fought at Sakumo’s side for many years. One ear flops over her face as she bounds over, the fur around her muzzle darker, stained. Sakumo holds a hand out to halt her and she clambers to a stop, squashing crops as she rolls.

Atsuko’s excitement doesn’t waver. “Hey-o Boss! Lady Boss! I came to greet you! Was hoping the seal didn’t scramble you or anythin’.” She sniffs up towards Kakashi, a wild look in her eyes. Sakumo’s used to that, too. Kakashi’s eyes are closed and his face pink; reverse-summoning must have tired him. Atsuko’s tail wags. “Hey-o little boss.”

“Hatsuhime’s expecting us,” Sakumo says, nerves easing at Atsuko’s presence. His pack have always been good to him. He scratches her snout. “We shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

“Course not,” Atsuko agrees. She gnaws on Sakumo’s fingers. “Summon us soon?”

“As soon as I’m able.” He pulls his slightly-chewed hand from Atsuko’s mouth and pushes her muzzle away. “Go.”

With one final tail-wag, she disappears back into the field. Sakumo wipes his hand on his trousers, meeting Mahiro’s amused look with a small shake of his head.

“She loves you enough to eat you, and that’s a compliment,” Mahiro says.

Sakumo wipes his hand on her clothes, too. “Is that what they’ve been telling you?”

“Ha! That’s what _I’ve_ been telling th –”

Chakra stirs in the air, in the earth and the snow. Hatsuhime doesn’t appear as the dawn does, rising into view, or as snow-clouds hunting across a vast, unshielded sky. She is the chakra-mother and exists always, seeing and being all. The sky itself becomes her: the sun and moon that chase each other form her eyes. From the white field she grows, her fur silver and gold. She is a wolf, iron-clad and iron-willed, fortified from time, famine, and disease.

Sakumo bows. His hair hangs like a wolf’s tail over his shoulder. Mahiro bows, too, almost low enough to hide Kakashi from view. But nothing escapes Hatsuhime’s notice and her teeth gleam like scythes through a field.

“What is his name?”

Sakumo answers. “Kakashi.”

“And on what night was he born?”

“A warm night. Just before the rain.”

September 15th, the start of autumn and the promise of colder days. Kakashi had been born so late into the evening that the sun had threatened to rise, and yet that golden morning never came. Instead, Sakumo had watched from the hospital window, helpless, as thunderous rain drowned out their newborn’s cries. For their lightning-touched clan, it was perhaps a good omen, but Sakumo couldn’t help but feel as though that night dragged on and on and never gave way to day.

“He was early,” Mahiro adds, and it clearly pains her to say, to remember. They had feared for their son that night. Sakumo had feared for his wife, too, and he comforts her now as he couldn’t then, a hand resting low on her back.

“And yet, he thrives,” Hatsuhime reasons. She leans near and her breath is a brisk mountain breeze. “A difficult start for one so small. Open your eyes, little one. You have many fears to face but _I_ am not one of them.”

Kakashi is too young to understand directions but Hatsuhime isn’t to be denied. He peeps out from the swaddle of blankets, wispy hair like snowflakes over his eyes. Hatsuhime puffs it away with a breath and he squirms, enraptured. His reach for her is uncoordinated and far too short, but it seems to amuse her. She presses so close that her fur almost engulfs them. Mahiro tries to take a step back but Sakumo’s hand keeps her still.

Kakashi coos, trying to snatch that fur.

“You are _very_ small for a destiny so great,” Hatsuhime says.

Sakumo holds his breath. No Hatake has ever questioned the sight of the chakra-mother. She sees the lives of their clan like the fields of their ancestors reaching far into the horizon. Each grain is someone who is, who was, or will one day be, and like an iron-cloaked shepherd she watches it all. The Hatakes may have come down from the mountains, but Hatsuhime remains at its peak, snow-capped and cold.

She is wonderful, and terrible, and whatever she has to say of his son, Sakumo doesn’t want to hear.

Hatsuhime rumbles, not unlike a sigh. “He will see what no other Hatake has seen. And his eyes –“ She smiles, bearing teeth, “– belong not to him. He will lead a generation but lose almost all of his own.”

Mahiro wraps her hand around Kakashi’s little ones, quietening him. “So I’ve just brought him into this world to suffer?”

“No, daughter,” Hatsuhime assures. She rises up out of reach, the wheat grains crumbling into snow. “You have brought him into this world to _love_ \- and that love will define him.”

Her all-seeing eyes slide from Kakashi to Mahiro, grey and wise. When her gaze reaches Sakumo, dread freezes in his chest. Beside him, his family fuss happily, reassured as Sakumo should be, and oblivious as he’s not.

“His love will define the world around him,” Hatsuhime had warned Sakumo’s parents all those years ago. He recalls her words, now, although he had been far too young then. “It will destroy a generation and rebirth it anew.”

“What should we tell him?” Tomohiro demanded; and Sakumo remembers a trying father, a watchful one. His mother, smaller and lovelier, her hair black and straight, had stood unbending beneath Hatsuhime’s gaze.

“Tell him to be brave.”

“And how should we love him?” Nara had asked.

The chakra-mother gnashed her teeth in a laugh.

Sakumo lowers his eyes to his son to reassure himself (to avoid Hatsuhime’s gaze). He doesn’t feel like Nara’s brave wolf-son; Tomohiro’s cautious child. Sometimes, he carries their legacy as reluctantly as his own. He only wishes he could spare Kakashi the same. Hatsuhime’s omniscience hasn’t been kind to their clan, not in many years. Only seven remain. Many have perished within Sakumo’s lifetime; his sister but a year ago. He hadn’t told Mahiro, but Kakashi’s fate was all but assured as unkind. They may not have brought Kakashi into this world to suffer – but he is a Hatake, and he will.

“Return to your plane,” Hatsuhime commands, and Sakumo looks up as the sky-chakra beckons to take her away. Her fur glints silver, as blinding as freshly-fallen snow. Her teeth are sharp and white. Her voice carries like a howl down a mountain, like the moon sinking down. “I will call for your son in due course. I have much to see of his life: much to consider.”

The dread seeps from Sakumo’s chest, leaving the cool burn of relief. “Thank you,” he mutters, but he means not for her time.

“Thank you,” Mahiro agrees, her eyes half-moons of delight.

Kakashi wiggles, reaching for Hatsuhime as she fades away. The he doesn’t manage to pet her distresses him greatly. Sakumo almost reaches out to reassure him but finds his hands forming the ‘release’ seal instead. Best to return them promptly, he knows, and once they are home where their destinies don’t exist, then he can cradle his son.

“You’ll get your chance, sweetie,” Mahiro soothes, kissing Kakashi’s head. “I think the chakra-mother liked you.”

_Enough to eat him_ , Sakumo despairs. He releases chakra into the field, shaking the wheat free of its snow.

The world blurs into nothingness - and then realigns itself into home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! All comments appreciated :)


End file.
